Jonesboro Lawmaker’s Race Comments Stir Controversy

(Jonesboro, AR) Arkansas Republicans are trying to distance themselves from a Jonesboro lawmaker who states slavery was a “blessing in disguise.”

Representative Jon Hubbard (R, Jonesboro) made the statement in a self-published book in 2009.

In “Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative” Hubbard stated his belief African-Americans were economically and culturally better off than they would have been in their African homeland.

State Republicans are going to great lengths to distance themselves from Hubbard, and Charles Fuqua of Batesville, who recently wrote a book calling for Muslims to be expelled from the United States.

Hubbard is running against Democrat Harold Copenhaver in House District 58.